In some versions of the service manual, the torque setting for the small cover over the crankshaft nut is stated in ft-lbs when it should be in inch-lbs. This small round metal cover has an o-ring on the back and a built in shallow nut on the outside. In rare cases, this cover is on so tight that the only way to get it off is to destroy the built-in nut and, hence, destroy the cover. Hopefully yours is not on tightly. When you reinstall this cover, do not tighten it very hard. Remember, it has an o-ring that is doing the sealing.
To avoid having to remove the pipes and footbeds, you may have to cut down the short leg of a small Allen wrench to allow it to fit between the pipes and a couple of the bolts in the plastic cover that is over this small round cover.
Finally, I made it... yesterday I've done my valves together with a friend into his specialized motorbikes workshop, full sets of tools and everything we've needed.
Now: maybe I was just lucky or not?!?, but on 20k miles on my bike, first time when the valves were done (I know, don't shoot me
), and they were like this: front intake was slightly large (IN MM NOT IMPERIAL; 0.18 INSTEAD OF 0.15, properly adjusted after), front exhaust was .33, rear exhaust was .32 and rear intake was spot on at .15.
Took aprox 3 and half hours from start to finish and firing up the bike. Biggest problem was not dropping the tools inside cylinders, or limited access space for some valves, but that 10mm lower screw from air filter housing, that has its nut inside the rubber - was turning together and had initially to take is out with the rubber nut, then remove the nut and re-make its thread.
